Metal Heart
by voidhxrrington
Summary: Tadashi's life was as well organized as possible for a collage student until he met Catherine Anders, a young aspiring cardiologist. It isn't long before the two get involved but Catherine's emotional baggage soon sends the love story spiraling down to hell. Will Tadashi be able to melt her metal heart?
1. Prologue

Hey there. So, just gonna make this real clear from the beggining: this story has a heavy plot. There are triggers and obscene language and sexual content as well. If any of these things aren't what you were expecting then I completely understand if you leave now. If not then I hope you enjoy the story. It took me a couple of months to write it but I just had to after watching Big Hero 6 and becoming not only entranced by Tadashi but also unsatisfied by the amount of screen time he got.

* * *

 **Prologue**

The lab was practically empty with no one but Tadashi working on his latest upgrade for Baymax. The smell of cold coffee lingered around his chilly desk. He rubbed his eyes as he kept twisting a bolt into place. Medicine; who would have guessed? In the end the robotics student was dedicating his time and putting effort into a project that involved medicine of all things. He took a moment to shift back and take in his work. A subtle smile spread on his lips at the white round machine as he recalled what had brought him to that moment.

"Good afternoon, I'm Tadashi Hamada. Um, this is my project. Simply put he's a nurse robot. I was instructed to bring him over to the medical department to test him out. If you have any suggestions at all, feel free to comment." The boy presented his creation and let Baymax take it from there.

Soon everyone had interacted with the mechanism and was admiring both the perfection of the device as well as Tadashi's knowledge in its making. He had thanked everyone for their participation as the class ended and all the students dispersed when a particular girl made her way towards him.

She wasn't very tall and had seemed quite inhibited and classy in her white doctor's coat, a grey textured shirt, white pants and all white sneakers.

"Excuse me." She called to Tadashi who had his back to her as he picked up the box that Baymax was kept in. As soon as he saw her his expression changed. His pupils dilated and his heartbeat went a little faster. She gave a meek smile as he looked down to her.

"Yes?" The boy responded in a voice a bit hoarse.

"Sorry..." She tittered a bit awkwardly before going on. "Uh, I really liked your invention..."

"Thanks." He grinned with a bit of a nervous tick and she giggled at that which made his cheeks flush a bit as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Um, I just wanted to give you a suggestion, uh, well, I noticed that when I questioned uh, Bay..." She trudged out the bot's name while making confused eyes at Tadashi trying to make sure it was correct.

"Baymax." The boy helped her finish the word and she nodded.

"Yeah, Baymax about heart attacks he had all the information but didn't have any immediate treatment."

"Oh. I see."

"Don't get me wrong, I really did love him. I just...you know...wanted to help in anyway." She looked down quickly then back up.

"No, it's fine. I asked for ideas so..." The boy nodded without finishing the phrase that the girl had understood nonetheless.

"Okay then...well, I'm gonna get going." She smiled in relief as she slightly stepped back.

"Yeah, sure thing." Tadashi motioned towards the exit with his hand and smiled back.

The girl turned and started to the door. As she took her first few steps Tadashi took in the full sight of her again. Her lengthy ginger brown hair moved lively with each footstep and it made Tadashi smile to see her driven demeanor. He quickly turned though and searched for a pencil as he flipped open his notepad and wrote down the words "heart attack" to remind himself of modifications to be made.

After Tadashi was finished setting up his desk for the next day he dragged his drowsy body out of his lab and made his way to his motorcycle. Reaching the Lucky Cat Café the boy silently entered the front door making sure not to wake up his aunt at such an hour. Carefully stepping up to his room he finally began to unwind but not for long.

"Again?" The older Hamada groaned as he stepped into his empty bedroom. He spun back towards the door and grabbed his helmet as he fluidly went down the steps.

He already knew where his brother would be: bot fight. It was tiresome for him to have to study all day and still have the responsibility of getting his little brother out of trouble but he would never give up on Hiro. If there was one thing that Tadashi was, it was dedicated. Speedily riding through the vividly colored streets of San Fransokyo Tadashi could feel the chilly wind hitting his face and thought of how Hiro could get a cold from being out at this time.

"Hiro!" He called out to his brother as he caught sight of him in the midst of a crowd full of unfriendly looking teenagers. Hearing Tadashi's unmistakable gruff voice the younger boy turned and gave his brother a sly smile while walking towards him.

"Hey, big bro. Come to see my awesome bot destroy these guys?" Hiro teased his already irritated brother.

"Not even close." Tadashi said shaking his head with an ironic smile. He reached out and lightly pulled on the younger Hamada's left ear just enough to make the kid complain as he led him to the bike.

"Ow, ow, ow...No need for violence." Hiro insisted on teasing his brother with a grin although his ear was red. Tadashi let out a slightly amused breathe as they mounted the bike.

Just then bright headlights shined on the two brothers and a car horn resounded telling them to get out of the way. Tadashi looked back with a lump in his throat as he tensed up. It was a dangerous part of town and they could be sucked into a fight at any moment. Squinting to get a view of the driver he noticed a familiar face.

"Wait a minute..." He whispered to himself, forgetting to move at all.

"What are you doing, move out of the way." The older boy heard Hiro's annoyed tone as he pulled him back by his blazer.

Something in the back of his mind was hoping it was just an illusion of the smoggy air and a tired brain but he was sure that he had seen the same mocha eyes as he had once seen at his collage.

As the vehicle cautiously maneuvered out of the narrow street the driver saw Tadashi's honey brown irises glimmer from the car's strong light and focused on the guy's face. Now he was sure... rather, they were sure. That was the girl who had gone up to Tadashi after his presentation in the medical building at SFIT. Her intense eyebrows knitted down and her pupil grew immediately as her grip on the steering wheel tightened to the point that you could hear the rubber tensing up against her palm.

The girl held her breath and bit the inside of her lip.

"Oh no."


	2. I Really Don't Know You

The place was packed with college students and other young adults waiting for their next class or just hanging out. Warm orange lighting made the restaurant much more homey and comfortable. Although the chattering at the establishment was almost unbearable Tadashi sat at a table near the large glass windows and worked on a paper on his laptop. He was so engrossed in his typing that he didn't notice the female figure that walked his way.

"Hi." A sweet voice suddenly said and the boy looked up to see her.

Her smile was awkward yet truthful and Tadashi would be lying if he said that he wasn't happy to see how she made an effort for him. He wasn't the most direct guy so to have someone that he could see was pretty focused try for him honestly sparked his interest.

"Hi." He answered forgetting all about the contents on his screen and giving his full attention to the girl standing next to his empty table.

"Well, I know this going to sound weird but...can I buy you a drink?" She stammered in a way that made Tadashi just as embarrassed to watch her so intently. "I didn't mean it like that...it's still noon...I know but I meant like...coffee maybe?"

"I-I..." The boy stuttered as his brain and his heart battled for an answer.

"Please. I really need to pay for my last psychiatric appointment." She joked and he felt his ears heat up as he blushed.

"Yeah, sure, let's get some coffee."

The girl took a deep breath as she stopped in front of the door that would lead her into confronting someone who she didn't know and that she didn't really owe an explanation to but there she was; fingers twitching, heart beat racing and an uncomfortable look on her face. The only thing that still persuaded her to not give up entirely was the hour. As always Tadashi had been the last one at the lab, diligently working on his robot until no one could find a flaw. She tensed up and built up her courage, stepping into the silent workroom trying her best to be cautious while still not seeming shrewd.

"Excuse me?" She called out in half a whisper and got no answer. Taking a few more steps she finds herself at the boy's personal corner. Apparently he hadn't heard her since all he did was continue sitting with his back to the door while hot red sparks sprinkled from his desk. The girl stepped into the room warily and reached out a finger to touch the boys shoulder.

"Excuse me?" She repeated and Tadashi jolted back and dropped the tool he had been using.

"Ah!" The boy had been startled into hitting the girl's stomach with the rolling chair.

"Ow!" She heaved out as she stumbled back. Tadashi immediately stood and went over to her.

"Are you alright?" He said looking down to the girl who lightly held her abdomen. Looking up she realized that the boy was still wearing his protective mask. A small laugh started trickling out of her rosy lips as she saw how funny the boy looked in the mask.

"Yeah, I'm fine...by the way, wasn't Baymax supposed to activate just now?" She quickly took the focus off of her for a bit.

"Well, I'm actually melding his chip right now so he's off." The boy looks to the work on his desk then back to the girl in front of him.

"Oh..." She thinks about leaving and coming back another time but then again, Tadashi was always working on something.

"Did you...uh, want something?" The boy makes sure not to sound rude as he asks this.

"Well...I-I'm not even sure if you remember but..." She darted her gaze around the organized mess before returning to the patient boy towering her.

"We...kind of, ran into each other the other day..." She begins as she felt her burning blood pumping through her veins.

"Yesterday...actually." Tadashi shows her that he understands where this conversation was going. The girl looked up and her pupils grew in surprise before she looked sideways again.

"Yeah...well um...you see...I know I was there and all but I don't really participate. It's...it's just my stupid brother." As she says this Tadashi instantly relates and listens even more intently to every word.

"I-I hate him." She seethes. "He's older than me but I never really knew what it's like to be tended to. I was always the one to get him out of trouble, to help him with his homework; I never got those privileges myself." Her gaze was distant and dark.

"My little brother is into bot fighting too. I get what you mean; I wish he would use his big brain for good things instead that stuff." Tadashi tried to level with the girl who seemed to be imploding only to be met with a scoff.

Her head turns sideways while delicate hands covered her mouth almost as if she was trying to contain her angered expression.

"Big brain. What? Your brother is fifteen and thinks it's pretty cool to show off his smarts to the dark side? If 'big bro' was smart I could at least pretend to secretly admire him and have a friendly competition with him but not really. He's just the reason I've become my parents last hope at 'the family pride'." The girl seemed to be spewing everything that she'd been fed up with while Tadashi uncomplainingly listened.

"I really wish that everything I did wasn't being monitored like I'm constantly trying to embarrass Kade. I just really want to like him but...it's hard you know?" She stops and blinks as if to return to her senses. "Actually...why I am I telling you this?" She says more to herself as a bashful grin crawls onto her face.

"It's okay." Tadashi says with a gentle voice as he watches her calm down slowly.

"Anyway...uh, I-I just came to tell you I'm not secretly into bot fighting or anything." She bit her lip in embarrassment as she stepped back.

"Haha, no problem, you seem like a good girl." The phrase came out almost sexual in the boy's deep voice. Both of them noticed this and the atmosphere became weird all at once.

"Ah...yeah, so, see you around." She finished as she began to leave.

"Oh, um, wait." Tadashi called out to her and she turned instantly. "I didn't get your name."

"Oh, sorry, Catherine Anders." She answered the boy with a smile.

"Catherine." He repeated to himself. "I'm Tadashi Hamada." He politely replied.

"Yeah, I know, you said it in your presentation." Catherine reminds him and he blushes fiercely.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot..." He stuttered and the girl chuckled lightheartedly.

"So what do you want?" The girl asked as the two of them walked into a busy café.

"Anything's fine." Tadashi tries to be polite.

"No, really, choose what whatever you want; I want to see what you'll choose." Catherine said this with a cool aura and the boy only nodded.

"Uh, then let me get an expresso." He says looking from the waitress to Catherine who had on a smile.

"Expresso: a man's coffee." She joked and Tadashi rolled his eyes although he laughed a bit.

"I'll have a macchiato." She moved her hair behind her ear and added to the order.

"Right up." The woman replied and went off to making the drinks.

The room was warm, different from the late autumn weather outside. Soon the smell of ground coffee beans and sweet milk filled the two up and made them feel comfortable and cozy. They talked about the most random things finding something in common in the midst of unorthodox ideas. As Tadashi drank the hot liquid while listening to the girl's gentle whispering tone he felt the soothing effect of the scenery. Catherine honestly couldn't believe how easy it was to talk to him. She'd never been one to talk much so to be sitting in a café talking about her deepest rooted theories felt almost foreign to the naturally lonely girl. The two were so surrounded by their own conversation that they didn't notice when the burgundy door opened letting the icy wind drift inside the comfy place. Black Vans stepped into the place and headed to the two youngsters talking at the counter.

"Catherine." A husky voice called and the girl stopped talking and turned.

Meeting her glance were deep, dark eyes cover by strong eyebrows and messy bangs. Catherine instantly switched her own eyes to their more hostile form, wrinkling her brow as she squinted and narrowed her vision as if ahead of her was a cunning enemy not her own flesh and blood.

"What?" Is the only word she let seep from the filter of her hateful feelings.

"I need some money." The guy said simply while shaking his head and rearranging his wild hair, mid-length top with a soft undercut.

"Handle it." Catherine replied with the tone of someone who could jump at the kid's neck at any moment. A smirk spread over his predominant lower lip and the boy took one of his hands out of his dark jean's pocket and patted the girl on the head.

"Come on, little sis, help me out." His plead was so false that it exasperated the girl to hear how naturally he could let the words drip from his tongue.

"Get out of here, Kade." A low growl came from her throat as the boy swirled his finger around his sister's long hair.

A perfectly pointed nose moved to see Tadashi sitting tense and mute behind Catherine.

"Oh, I get it." Kade says feigning regret as he steps back from his sibling. "You're on a date, huh?" The guy asks while looking into Tadashi's shocked eyes.

"Kade." Catherine sets the boundary and the boy settles down. If looks could kill the two Anders siblings would be bleeding on the floor at that instant.

"You gonna help me out or not?" Kade questions again in a more somber, brusque tenor.

Against her will Catherine sees through the bad-boy gawk and straight to the desperate interior. After all, who else could he go to? She goes to her bag and pulls out a twenty.

"Here. Get out of my sight." The girl slaps the bill into the boy's outstretched hand and sends him away.

"Thanks baby girl." Kade smiles and kisses his sisters forehead before leaving almost instantly.

As soon as he leaves the girl slumps in her seat and lets out a deep sigh. Tadashi is motionless and suddenly Catherine rises from her seat and puts another twenty dollar bill in front of Tadashi.

"I'm sorry." She whispers and starts for the exit.

"Wait...Catherine...waitress." Tadashi fumbles around with the money while standing from his own seat and calling on both Catherine and the waitress. When the girl goes through the door he hurriedly leaves the money on the counter and runs out after her.

"Catherine...uh, could you please wait." He calls just behind her and she doesn't heed his words.

"This isn't happening." The girl shakes her head as she reaches her car. She opens the white door and throws her bag to the passenger seat before ducking to sit at the driver's seat.

"Wait. Catherine, just wait." Tadashi places his hand over Catherine's holding the top of the door. The boy lets out a relieved breathe and looks to the girl's face. She looks down as soon as their eyes meet and Tadashi shuts his eyes as he tries to think of the right thing to say.

"It's okay." He begins slowly.

"Not really, it's not." She shakes her head again.

"Why?" The boy asks more to get her to talk about her feelings rather than to get an answer.

"He's not gonna stop doing that and I'm not gonna stop doing that. You...I mean, I'm not an easy person. You're a good kid, right? Love your family? Got an amazing academic record?"

"What does that have to do with thi-Us?" Tadashi asks boldly implying a relationship between them.

"I like you...I think I like you...but you're gonna regret it." She said the last part with eyes that tore Tadashi apart.

Not knowing what to say at that point the boy took both his hands to the girl's head and stared at her eyes for a minute before placing his lips lightly over hers. Slowly she responded to the touch by moving and Tadashi slid his tongue over her bottom lip and his eyes started fluttering closed. She opened her mouth for him and gradually their tongues gently began greeting each other. The kiss was slow and a bit hesitant but it was pure and clear. The taste of coffee still lingering on their pallets swirled around their kiss and as they pulled back their half-open eyes stared at each other's face.

"I'm not gonna regret it." Tadashi assured and Catherine licked his taste from her lips as she nodded.


	3. God of War

CH 2: God of War

2 Months Later

It was heartwarming to watch the way that Catherine and Tadashi treated each other, though it was also nearly impossible to tell if they were best friends or a couple. Their conversations were mostly about whatever was happening and never held any double meanings at all but they were always together. It was so innocent and sweet that Honey Lemon hadn't hesitated to constantly label it "cute". Tadashi's friends were all aware of how much the boy liked Catherine but only limited their comments about the relationship to mild teasing.

"Can you hand me that wrench please."

"Mmhmm." Catherine hummed as she went to the toolbox and pulled out the utensil Tadashi had asked for.

"Thanks." The boy said as he received it and touched up Baymax.

"Is it ready?" Catherine asked while leisurely spinning in her chair and watching Tadashi stand back from the bot.

"I think so." He stepped back and stood behind Catherine as they both observed Baymax's actions.

"Hello, I am Baymax, your personal health care companion." The bots voice started up after Catherine faked an "ow".

"On a scale of one to ten how would you rate your pain?"

"10! Oh, I think I'm having a heart attack!" The girl dramatized as she spun in her chair. Tadashi chuckled as he watched her unrealistic acting.

"My hands are equipped with defibrillators." Baymax stated this as he rubbed his palms together and blue circles shined on them. "Clear."

Catherine looked to Tadashi and smiled to show that his new function had worked perfectly.

"Actually I'm all better." Catherine said as she stood from the chair.

"Are you sure?" The fluffy white robot asked her and she nodded.

"Much better. I am satisfied with my care." She said this while linking her fingers to each other as she hung around Tadashi's neck. The two of them watched Baymax go back to his charging plate then turned to face each other.

"You're a genius, you know that, right?" The girl smiled to the boy in front of her. Tadashi slightly blushed at the comment and gave her a small peck on the lips.

"I can't wait to be assisted by one of your amazing inventions at the hospital." Catherine said after licking her lips and removing her arms from the boy's neck. He held her arm and pulled her in closer staring deep into her eyes.

"Till then maybe I can assist you personally." He grins slyly as his hands snake around the girl's hips.

"You think?" Catherine replies with a grin of her own and Tadashi nods as he looks down to her.

"How so?" She asks while her boyfriend's hands traveled up to her waist, his thumbs massaging small circles wherever they touched.

"Mind if I show you?" Tadashi's words slur out, heavy with a lustful tone. He didn't need an answer as he began to kiss the girl's neck and pressed her body closer to his. Catherine stumbled back at the feeling and caused a small smile on Tadashi's lips. He led her to the desk he was just working on and grabbed her up to sit her atop it. He then began nibbling on Catherine's collar bone before his tongue slid down her chest. Hesitant moans were extracted from the girl as he inhaled her perfume and snuggled his head to her breasts.

"Ta-dashi." She stuttered and the boy's eyes looked up to her burning red cheeks.

Tadashi smiled and straightened up. He wasn't going to do anything she didn't want.

"Wanna go get something to eat?" He asked to make the whole thing blow over quickly.

His sensitivity struck Catherine's heart instantly and she could barely hide the beaming smile he caused. She nodded and he kissed her one last time as she slid off the desk. He took her hand, intertwining their fingers as they walked out of the lab.

"So you've gone soft, huh?"

"Shut up, Kade. What do you want, rather forget it; I already know." Catherine said reaching for her wallet in her bag.

"Not so fast kid sister. I got cash." The taller boy said walking up to his sibling and putting an arm around her as he watched Tadashi ride off on his bike. Catherine turned to face the same direction with a worried look.

"I just wanted to check if you hadn't scared away that little nerd. But looks like there's nothing to worry about; he's got you wrapped around his finger." His dark gaze turned to his sister and lightened up a bit.

"Finally someone to tame you." His plump lips curled into an irritating grin and Catherine pulled away from his grasp.

"He hasn't tamed me, Kade. It's not like I'm his pet." Catherine barked back at the boy who seemed nonchalant even with the tone of voice she used.

"Well you look well-trained to me: haven't seen you around town much although I heard that your grades have lowered a tad bit, probably spending more time 'being handy' at the lab than the hospital, and look how cute..." The guy flicked his wrist and checked the time on his elegant silver watch. "home by 9:00." He smiled as he showed the girl the watches hands.

Catherine was enraged but simultaneously shocked. It was true; she was dedicating herself too much. Somehow Tadashi's sweet way had gotten under her skin, but she wasn't the type of person to just let someone else take the reins. She could feel herself changing; toughening even then as she sharply gawked at Kade. He knew just how to hit a nerve. All he had to do was mention her potential, say that she could be easily swayed and there he had it; the spectacle of power, ferocity and coldness that his sweet, caring baby sister had mastered at thirteen.

"You're just so weak." The words echoed and transported Catherine back to her childhood; standing in her brother's room, her small arms wrapping around his middle as she soaked his shirt with her tears.

"Mom and dad are so mean to us big bro." Catherine's kid voice rang in her brain. Her teenage brother stroked her soft hair. She lifted her head and saw her brother's smile.

"They just want smart kids is all." He calmed her down a bit.

"But they always called you stupid. You're not stupid, Kade." Catherine gripped the boy's torso tighter.

"You're just so weak." He giggled darkly.

"Huh?" The little girl looked to the twisted grin her brother gave.

"I really am stupid but you're weak. Mom and dad are super smart so they're just angry they have two useless children, right?" The words felt bitter in his mouth as he spat them out.

"No, Kade! I'm not weak and you're not stupid!" The younger sibling shouted as she shook her head.

"You're so simple, Cathy." He teared down the girl's last hope at being cared for. "When you grow up, people are going to smother you, because you're easy to own. You're just a baby." He giggled as he watched his sister's expression.

"I'm 9 already! I'm not a baby!"

"Whatever, just make sure you toughen up before you're a teenager or else you're gonna be a rag doll in everyone's hands."

Catherine came back from that memory more vicious than before.

"Go away, Kade." Her voice was monotone and stamped with the droplets of rancorous hatred Kade recognized so well. In fact it entertained him to see his sister in that state. In his mind he was accomplishing some part in her process in becoming an adult.

"Sure thing." He smiled and kissed her cheek.

"It was nice seeing you, Cathy." The guy waved as he started down the stairs of the apartment building.

All Catherine could do was sulk. She'd been brutally averted once again by her brother about being too soft in the jungle that was life and she wasn't too happy about it. Especially when the aversion was in regards of Tadashi, the person who, up till that moment, had been occupying the post of her number one priority.

Catherine worked diligently at the University's hospital as she went from one patient to another, helping everyone as much as she could. Her speed and detail with the patients was admirable and had already given her the reputation enviable by anyone in the area.

"Dr. Anders, could you help us out here?" One guy said as he stood over a patient who's arm was broken.

"Sure thing." As Catherine answered him she caught sight of Tadashi walking in. Her vision went straight to the boy and a pang of insecurity washed over her body. From afar Tadashi smiled to her. She didn't reply.

"Hey, need a ride home?" The boy said while observing how attractive his girlfriend looked in a doctor's coat. Catherine was stale at the question.

"I need to stay here a bit longer actually." The tone was bland and Tadashi noticed right away.

"You okay?" He questioned her while reaching for her hand.

Catherine instantly put her hands in her white pockets.

"I'm fine, but I really do have to go now. See you later." She speeds to say this then spins away from Tadashi. The boy is left standing there a bit confused and embarrassed.

It was obvious to Tadashi that something was on her mind. He replayed everything that had recently happened between them but couldn't find one thing that she could be angry about. He left in a terrible mood. At home Hiro noticed it and questioned him on it.

"What's up with you?" The younger Hamada asked as Tadashi threw his bag in a corner of his side of the room.

"It's just..." The boy sighed and sat on his bed with a plop. "My...girlfriend's mad at something and I have no idea..."

"You have a girlfriend?" Hiro was surprised to hear that his nerd brother could actually manage such a task. Tadashi only glared at his brother and Hiro gave him a cheeky grin.

"I'm really worried about it, Hiro." The boy confessed and Hiro stopped joking so much.

"Just a thought here, but you could you know, just ask her about it." The teenager suggested as he spun around in his chair to face his brother.

"That's what I thought...but...she didn't say anything. Maybe it was because she was working." The older boy said this as he took off his cap.

"Yeah, maybe she prefers to talk things out privately." Hiro tried to sooth his brother's worry.

"Yeah...yeah, you're probably right. I'll just talk to her tomorrow." Tadashi decided as he stood with a towel to go shower.

"Good luck." Hiro chuckled and turned back to face his computer screen.

Tadashi hoped that it was something simple. He hadn't really ever had an actual girlfriend, of course he'd kissed a girl before and even went out on a few dates but it was different from now. He wanted to be serious with Catherine. He didn't know why but every time he looked at her face, her dark coco eyes, her auburn brown locks that flowed so perfectly straight he felt like he wanted to be with her no matter what. Although it had only been two months since they'd started being together he saw her in his future. The feeling he got when she was with him was so warm and peaceful, like he could be completely himself around her. He wasn't going to give up so easily. As a matter of fact, Tadashi was the type of person who never gave up.


	4. Regret It Yet?

CH 3: Regret It Yet?

He kissed her neck passionately and moaned against her skin, his desire burning.

"Do you still love me?" He asked as he devoured the girl in his lap.

She didn't know how to answer. It wasn't like she wanted to say no, but she definitely couldn't say yes. She just moaned and turned her head to the side, avoiding the question and instead giving Tadashi a half-answer with her body.

Two weeks had started a fire in Tadashi's heart and his body was yearning for his loved one but it hadn't done much in Catherine's mind and she regretted suggesting the recess at all.

"Catherine." Tadashi called the girls name as they sat in her black car. Silence reigned the whole week and this was the first time they'd been entirely alone with each other. She only turned her head to the boy. She felt her heart tighten. She blamed herself for all the pain she was feeling, however the poison Kade could so easily inject her with was already coursing through her blood. It pumped through her day in, day out and silently murdered Tadashi.

"What's going on here?" The boy asked simply, aware that Catherine knew exactly what he was referring to.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't-Don't do that." He turned in the passenger seat to face her directly.

"What do you want me to say, Tadashi?" She questioned coldly.

"I just want to know what happened. We were going so well then out of nowhere you start doing that." He motioned to the emotionless face she had on.

"Would you rather I cry on your shoulder? Is that what you want; to be my hero?" Her words seemed to mock his feelings and he knitted his brows immediately while staring at the girl.

"This isn't a joke, you know. I just want to be there for you, you don't have to put up so many walls." The boy tried to hold the hand she had on the steering wheel but she pulled it away.

"Why are you doing this?" He raised his voice as he scrubbed his face frustrated. When he faced the girl again she was covering her mouth with one hand as she looked sideways. He knew her enough to know that's what she did when she was angry.

"I think we should take a break." Catherine finally spoke without sarcasm. However this time Tadashi wished she had. He pinched the bridge of his nose as his eyes squeezed shut.

"Why, Catherine?"

"Because I don't want to feel like you've got to watch over me like a child." She spits out and Tadashi scoffs.

"I'm not watching over you, I care for you!" It was the first time she had heard Tadashi shout and it sent shivers down her spine. She couldn't rip her gaze from his exasperated expression. It made her feel awful to realize that she wanted to laugh in his face when he made that look.

"It's not your fault." She managed to answer him with a weak reply.

"Then why do I have to suffer for it?" Tadashi didn't care about the girl's reaction this time and just pulled her into his embrace. Catherine's eyes stung and she felt tears want to fall down her cheeks. She really did like Tadashi a lot. It hurt her heart to see how terrible she was being to him but she couldn't let her guard down.

"Tadashi...don't make this harder than it already is." The girl answered honestly and he pulled back to look into her eyes. They were red and glossy and he decided to go easy on her.

"Fine, let's take a break." The agreement was made and Tadashi stepped out of the girl's car. She sat quietly as she watched him walk into his house. Tiny sniffles broke the dead quietness in her vehicle and she shook her head as she drove off.

The first days were hell for both of them but later into the beginning of the second week Catherine could feel herself getting better. It scared her to recognize how easily she could get over Tadashi. She still recalled him at night when she was all alone and she'd be lying if she said she hadn't thought of calling him once or twice but it was so trivial to just push him out of her thoughts during the day that it made her wonder how necessary he was in the first place. Tadashi on the other hand was a mess.

"Tadashi, come with us, it'll be fun." Honey Lemon offered a sweet smile to her friend as the others stood behind her waiting the boys answer.

"Its fine, Honey, I'll just finish up on this new idea." Tadashi denied while organizing his desk littered with papers and blue prints.

"Oh, okay." The blond stepped back and Gogo shook her head while striding up to the boy and slamming her palm down on the desk.

"Look, Tadashi, we get that you really liked Catherine, but life goes on." The short girl stated as Tadashi looked up to her from his seat.

"Go-Go, don't be so rough on him." Wasabi tried to pull her back but she just continued.

"Personally you're not my type but I'm sure there's other girls out there, who'd like you, so forget the past and move on." She popped a bubble and Tadashi gave a light smile although it didn't really make him feel any better.

"Thanks Gogo, but I really don't feel like going out today."

"Fine then, your choice." The girl said and walked back towards the others waiting at the door of Tadashi's lab.

"Dude, you're gonna miss it, tonight I'll be demonstrating how to make different types of growls using only a straw and two packets of ketchup." Fred tried coaxing his friend one last time and even managed a slight giggle from Tadashi but he just shook his head.

"I'm good, you'll just have to show me next time."

The group reluctantly left the University without their friend. Soon after they had gone Tadashi began rattling with Baymax, tuning him up where ever he thought would be needed, but he didn't have the concentration that night. He had closed up the lab and was walking down the hall when he caught sight of the familiar pace that Catherine had. He stopped and they stared at each other from a distance. Without a word they walked up to each other. Face to face in the empty hall the two were wordless. Catherine took Tadashi's hand and he watched her carefully.

"Come on." Tadashi led her back to his lab.

They sat on opposite sides of the room in an awkward silence, looking at each other's embarrassed faces. They felt childish and stupid but it was in the past. Tadashi stood and walked over to the girl. She watched him quietly as he placed his hand on her cheek and moved in to kiss her gently. She opened her mouth as his tongue easily slipped in. They weren't going to talk it over. Catherine had found out she didn't need to. If Tadashi knew better he wouldn't make everything so easy for her. If he only knew that she was going to do whatever she wanted regardless of his feelings he would at least try to fight that look she gave him. He wouldn't so easily take whatever she handed him. But he didn't know better and he accepted her entirely. His temperature increased at a quick rate and Catherine orchestrated the whole scene to her liking. She stood and he deepened their kiss even more. They moved and Tadashi ended up sitting on the chair she had been on. Her luscious thighs cradled the boy's side as she sat upon his lap.

"I missed you so much." Tadashi held onto Catherine like his life depended on it. He took in every detail of her body with passion. He hadn't gotten off for the whole period of time that they weren't together, bringing his hormones to exceeding levels. Catherine squirmed on his lap as he undid her bra and teased her nipples with the tip of his tongue. She didn't know what was going on. Her conscious was clouded by desire and though she knew that what she was doing was far from what Tadashi thought they were doing she couldn't bring herself to stopping. Her eyebrows furrowed as she guiltily received all the affection she was being showered with.

"Catherine. I love you." Tadashi repeated these words as he excited the girl's body more and more. He opened his eyes and finally realized the state he had put her in; back arched to its fullest, the buds of her breasts completely erect and an expression so lewd that it agitated Tadashi even more just from observing her. He was in awe at the erotic sight.

Unaware of how turned on she actually was Catherine instinctively began rolling her hips over Tadashi searching for more friction. His breath hitched at the feeling and he became sensitive all over. Each touch from the girl aroused him more. He tried to hold back at first, his mind telling him to take things slowly, but his nature was stronger and the wave of hormones took over in an instant.

He gripped her hips and found a rhythm that was enough to drive them both off the edge. Grinding over his fully clothed erection was much more painful than Tadashi had expected but the sounds Catherine made were too good and he wouldn't stop them for a second, even if it was to make him more comfortable. Suddenly the girl started speeding up, her arms gripped around Tadashi's wide shoulders as she whimpered erotically, lips hovering besides the boy's ear. He could feel his member twitching with need and thought about unzipping his pants but gave up when Catherine started bouncing over his rock hard dick. Groans and growls rumbled in his throat as he tried his best to keep sentient of everything happening since Catherine had lost her decency long ago. Tadashi let the girl coil her body over his as he kept an eye on the door of his lab. She was nearing her high, he could notice it. Her moans were more often and more high-pitched as she rubbed her exposed breasts over the boy's chest. Selfishly Catherine had left Tadashi completely dressed and cared only about her own needs, luckily the boy found this more of a turn on than a egocentric act.

"Ah...I'm gonna..." She started winding as she warned the boy under her.

"I got you. Go ahead." Tadashi kissed her neck and she sighed as her body released all the tension it had built up. She felt waves of pleasure so strong she started having spasms over the boy who held her securely. When she was done she flopped over Tadashi's body and closed her eyes. He was still hard but he wasn't going to force her to get him off if she was too tired. Instead he just sighed and hugged the girl tighter. He was finally beginning to realize that Catherine didn't love him like he loved her.


	5. Not Giving Up

CH 4: Not Giving Up

Catherine sat blankly staring at the white wall ahead of her. The clean smell of nothing mixed with the extending silence that reached every corner of the building made the girl a little less alive. She picked at the edges of her nails to give herself a mindless task as she wallowed in the remorse of her past actions. All she could ask herself was what she was doing. It wasn't right; she really liked Tadashi. Catherine may not have been the most intuitive person but she knew better than having gone up to him at that hour on the circumstances they were on. She kept scratching at her skin, wishing she could go back, not to that night with Tadashi but to that night with Kade. She wished she was still being blindly led by love, even if it would eventually dismantle her she wondered what her relationship would be still soaked in bliss ignorance.

"Anders, get ready, you're scrubbing in on the Connor surgery." The girl's residence ordered. The older woman had a blonde pixie cut and a stern kind of face.

"Right away, Dr. Thaler ."

"You okay, Anders." She looked back with an impatient yet slightly concerned expression.

"Sure thing." Catherine smiles perfectly and the doctor pretends to buy it.

That evening was Catherine's first hands on heart surgery. There was a responsibility about it that made her feel useful, like she was walking into that ER to make a difference. She washed her hands thoroughly and was helped on with her scrubs. The initial cut was made after the sterilizing and Catherine held steady. Her job was simple, mostly just holding the tools or finishing off sutures but to her it felt so mesmeric, like it was the first truly dignified thing she'd done in a while. Luckily Dr. Thaler and Dr. Kumal, the heads of the six person team, were experts in their field and could easily get through the surgery without any setbacks .At the same time that the girl felt honored she also felt disgraceful, almost hypocritical. She too aimed to specialize in cardiology but the things she did to Tadashi's metaphorical heart were the opposite of helpful.

After the surgery she found herself jittery and tense. Her shift was over though and she could shed all her worries outside the hospital, where she didn't need to be above human. Leaning on the large wall of the buildings left wing Catherine waited for Tadashi. He hadn't said he was going to pick her up but she had nowhere else to go after her shift and it was a given that her boyfriend wouldn't leave without at least checking to see if she'd gotten off already. Sure enough, about fifteen minutes into the flat winter night the familiar silhouette of the slim but toned guy showed up.

"Hey, I was just gonna check if you were out yet." He says with a content voice as he walked up to Catherine and cupped a hand over one side of her hip and lightly greeted her with a small kiss. Catherine just nodded; her lids heavy and her feet sore. The boy instantly felt her aura and escorted her towards his bike.

"You didn't come by car today?" He asks while still keeping his hand on her hip.

"It's at checkup." She answered without much detail and Tadashi tensed up, wondering if they were completely made up or still on rough roads. His fingers twitched at the thought of having another argument with the girl but the thoughts subsided when her fingers lazily searched for his hand and took hold of the slightly larger model.

"Hey, you okay?" Tadashi asked her this as he sat on his bike and handed her his helmet. She didn't answer, she only sat behind him and grabbed onto him tightly. He took a breath in at the strength of her hug. It wasn't peculiar to have Catherine be so intense but it was a bit different for her to be so transparent about it. If he had to guess he would say she was feeling guilty about something and he'd be right. The only thing the poor boy didn't understand was that it was the person she was holding was what she was guilty about. He smoothed her hands grasping onto his shirt with his own hands and started the bike.

The cold air blowing against them made the two of them have chills riding up their arms. Catherine watched the nook of Tadashi's neck like it was a painting; the goose bumps that had lightly formed and the way his black hair stopped at a certain point. Suddenly she kissed the spot she'd been observing. Tadashi felt the kiss and received it with affection but chose to keep his eyes on the streets. When he was obligated to stop at a red light he cocked his head to the side faintly to look at Catherine who had taken off the helmet and clicked it on the boy. Tadashi was going to protest, preferring to keep her safe, but she snuggled with such need on the boys back that he realized that's why she took it off in the first place; to be closer to him. At the thought he smiled a bit and just enjoyed the feeling of her warm breath heating up a circle where she had pressed her nose and mouth. If he could he would have made the ride longer just to keep feeling that attention he'd missed from her recently but they were already coming up to Catherine's apartment complex.

Reaching the front of her building Tadashi waits for Catherine to step down, say good night and walk away but she doesn't.

"Catherine?" He calls lowly with a rasping voice created by a blend of the frigid air and an uncertainty of the girl's actions.

"I did a heart surgery today." The girl stated out of the blue still glued to Tadashi's back; her cheek was so warm on his blazer that it felt almost unnecessary to pull away.

"Really?" Tadashi played into her scenario and stood there balancing the bike as she hung onto him.

"You know they don't look like how people think they do." Catherine said these words with a blandness to them that made it feel less like a commonly known fact and more like an abstract phrase.

"Is that so?" The boy asked intrigued by what she was trying to get at with these comments.

"Yeah, it bleeds." Tears started to form behind the girl's closed lids but she fought them back. This time Tadashi was silent. He didn't understand the point. But how couldn't he? He was the point. With that last encrypted mention she ripped herself away from the body heat that felt so heavenly in that cold night. Tadashi was left with a thinking expression.

"Good night." Tadashi shouted out as Catherine was already a few steps towards her building. She turned and stared at the boy. He felt unreciprocated at the silence and waited a few seconds before starting the bike.

"Tadashi, wait!" The girl ran to her boyfriend and embraced him tightly again. He looked at her confused as to what was going on inside of her. The look he gave, however, was too much for Catherine and before she noticed it or could stop herself she was passionately kissing Tadashi. Normally she would be washed by embarrassment to be kissing like that in public but the sorrow of what she was putting him through, even if he hadn't realized it yet, was so strong it compelled her to do something for him as an early sorry statement. The boy kissed her back just as ardently as she made the kiss be and relished every second of it.

"Good night, Tadashi."

"Good night. I...I'll see you tomorrow." Tadashi stuttered with a grin, still lost in the kiss.

As Tadashi slowly rode off he kept looking back to his girlfriend every two seconds until she was gone. He didn't understand what was making her that moody and from past experience he learned to just wait it out but whatever it was this time it couldn't be so bad, right? After all she had kissed him like they used to. Honestly Tadashi didn't comprehend too much at the moment but of one thing he was sure; he wasn't ever going to give Catherine up and now that he thought about it he was starting to recognize that more than like or admire her, he was in love with her. He tried to make himself shake these thoughts out of his mind but the more he dwelled on them the more they made sense. He really loved Catherine.


	6. Pretend

CH 5: Pretend

Rain poured furiously outside the small apartment's door. Catherine's dark brown orbs slowly and microscopically took in every point in her apartment. She observed the throw pillows on the floor, the empty cup of tea near a couple of slippers and the hall leading to the living room. She dragged her fingers insignificantly on the carpet floor and wondered why; why was the guy behind her so naïve. Tadashi's large warm arms wrapped around the girl's waist as his face fit in the crevice at the back of her head. He breathed in the scent of coconut that her locks had and sighed comfortably in the tepid queen bed that he and Catherine had disarranged. A few days after that good night kiss Tadashi came running back for more, unaware of how he was tiring the girl. To him he was being a good boyfriend, someone loving and present, but to Catherine it was torture; each time he did something like that, something that proved how lovely he really was, she just felt worse and it was driving her insane. The weather seemed to be trying to warn Tadashi of his girlfriend's feelings too, raining well into the nighttime, but he was too love struck to think about anything other than being next to Catherine. The two were still in bed only things were a little less innocent at this point.

The boy slid his hands up his girlfriend's legs insanely slow as his mouth was busy overwhelming her own. She kept gasping for air but Tadashi was too desperate to pull back and only waited for her to regain her breath with his mouth still over hers. He'd spent the whole day waiting for the right moment to start that. He felt liable for it, of course, but he was already inhumanly disciplined just to have kept his touches to a minimal up to that point. Catherine could feel herself tensing up at his erotic way of tracing of her waist.

"Don't..." Catherine moaned as she placed her hand on Tadashi's lips. He whimpered in want and disappointment.

"I really need you, Catherine." He pleaded with desperate chocolate colored eyes staring straight at the girl's face searching for the answer as quickly as possible. He wasn't going to push her into it but it was obvious that if she kept putting him off like that he was probably going to end up literally taking matters into his own hands.

At that sweet, delicate, craving face the rest of Catherine's sanity was crushed and any morality still left in her was run out. Deciding not to punish the boy or herself anymore she gave in. Tadashi noticed when her eyes went from flustered ones to ones glazed with lust and a drop of evil that he could feel burning through his skin. It was all he needed to commence. Taking her lips back onto his, he was less shy about his grip and made sure to mark any patch of skin his mouth made contact with. Low grunts escaped him as he both devoured and positioned the girl to his liking. Catherine watched with a coldness that would have made many phycologists curious. Her eyes were fixated on the guy over her but it was something a bit different from what Tadashi was experiencing. She wasn't watching him with emotions. She was taking notes of him. The time she'd made him wait for this moment was at first just something that happened because of the things going on in her mind but now it was part of the note taking. She was learning everything; how it didn't take long for him to forgive, how he was patient even when under pressure, how he liked to take things slowly and romantically. She smiled at how easy he was to get and Tadashi interpreted it as happiness for being with him. He kissed her more harmoniously now that he was a little lest frustrated. Tadashi rubbed his hips over her spot and the girl took note of his style as she waited to see his expression; he opened his eyes a bit more and observed her too. Without delay she understood his preference and started writhing more, acting like he was driving her crazy and saw him smile purely.

'So he's a people-pleaser, huh?' The girl made a mental note and went on with her experiment.

He was pulling her panties down leisurely as he kissed around her inner thighs. At the feeling Catherine truly let out a pleased whine; it was one of her own preferences. That was the most fun about the game she'd began playing: she didn't have to hide what she liked and Tadashi wasn't going to hide what he liked but in the long run the one who learned the other the best would be the ultimate winner. When he had pulled down the small piece of clothing Tadashi went back up, kissing her to his heart's content as he slid inside of her. His size made the girl shift to fit it all. She was starting to feel her blood pumping rapidly and though she tried to fight it she was gifting Tadashi with all the moans and whimpers he wanted. The girl was looking at things too pragmatically; Tadashi didn't want her making those sounds to make him feel more empowered or in control but to feel accepted. It was a pretty childish concept but she still was much too hardheaded to understand that to Tadashi no matter what he did, there would always be a detail that he missed that could be used against him. He was putting his all into each stroke and it was genuinely getting to Catherine. She could only half think about her notes as the waves of pleasure washed over her body. Tadashi's body pulsed over and over as he began to reach his high and abruptly he bucked up as his arms wrapped around Catherine and held her close. A legitimate whine left his lips and echoed in the room as he burst in the girl. She hadn't noticed but she was rubbing Tadashi's back and easing him down from his moment. He took in shallow breaths as his half open eyes watched Catherine with a devoted ardor that seemed to make them gleam. That kind of affection drove him onwards to give her the same feeling he'd just experienced and soon made it. She tried to hold back her provocative moans and screams as she released over Tadashi. He watched her in awe. It amazed him to see how she became the opposite of herself when she was aroused. The calm, composed manner she had most of the time made way for eliciting reactions and unmeasured movements that kept him on edge.

A complete silence swept over the room again as the couple lay in the afterglow. The smell of Catherine's hair was now much fainter and mixed with the scent of sweat and semen. Tadashi's heated chest caressed the girl's head and she tried to focus on the pitter patter of the rain hitting the window. The boy stroked her hair with gentle movements and as she lay motionless.

"I love you." The whisper rang in the girl's head as she tried her best to pretend she hadn't heard it. Tadashi moved back a bit looking down. The girl closed her eyes to avoid his glance and having to answer him at all. A tiny sigh came out of Tadashi's lungs and Catherine realized how upset he felt that after he said such an important thing she'd been sleeping or rather, pretending to be sleeping.

Catherine's icy stare witnessed the scenery though she couldn't quite wrap her head around how she got dragged into it. There she was sitting in the Hamada's garage, warm lighting and warmer drinks keeping the whole gang cozy and ecstatic as they listened to music and talked about nothing in particular. She didn't mind being with Tadashi and she actually enjoyed that whole thing but she wasn't being herself lately. After Tadashi had said that to her she was trying her best to not lead him into any situation that could bring him to saying it again. Being in his family's garage, surrounded by friends and sitting uncomfortably close to him on an insanely comfortable couch while they shared a cup of cinnamon hot chocolate wasn't going to help. Gogo held out her mug as Wasabi poured some more of the steaming liquid for her and Fred and Tadashi debated on whether Tony Stark could be compared to Batman.

"Are you kidding? Stark may not have super powers but he at least has the know-how to create his own weapons." The blond boy defended the fictional character as he shook his head and caused a smile on Tadashi's lips.

"But does that really matter when the point is they're both vigilantes?" Tadashi questioned him and Honey Lemon nodded.

"Yeah, aren't they're both just millionaires with super hero gear? How is Stark just better?" The girl with large pink glasses asked and Fred looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

"You guys are missing the point; Stark is a genius engineer..." He started to explain the various reasons why he considered Iron Man to be superior to Bruce Wayne.

"Hey, you okay? You seem kind of bored." Tadashi whispered over to his girlfriend as he watched her stale expression.

"You noticed?" She said sarcastically while taking the black mug from his hand and sipping the content.

"I know this isn't the kind of conversations you guys over at the medical department have but give it a try, sometimes it's good to loosen up." The boy coaxed her to little avail. She only handed him the cup back and leaned back, tilting ever so slightly to Tadashi. He leaned back to match her and the two looked forward, observing their friends' interaction as they talked lowly.

"I guess you're right, at least now if I ever hear someone diss Iron Man I got some pretty accurate things to say to back him up." Catherine deadpanned and faced Tadashi.

"See. Now you're looking at the bright side of things." The boy lightly chuckled as he faced her too. They looked into each other's eyes for a minute and Tadashi felt his heart skip a beat.

"I love you." Tadashi said more quietly and the small smile that had been on Catherine's dark pink lips faded.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom." She answered and stood suddenly. Tadashi's brows furrowed simultaneously as he stood as well.

"Let me show you where it is."

Away from the other's Tadashi finally spoke up.

"Hey, um...is something wrong?"

"No, why?" Catherine faked while avoiding the boy's eyes.

"Because I told you I loved you and you ran away and now you won't look me in the face." Tadashi stated with a dash of frustration in his tone. Catherine suddenly stopped walking and looked up to his exasperated expression.

"I didn't run away."

"You did actually."

"What? Am I in trouble because I didn't jump up and down when you said...when you said you..." Catherine realized how cold and hurtful was she was about say was when it was halfway out her mouth already.

"That I love you." Tadashi's eyes died out as he finished the sentence for her. Catherine felt like hiding her head in a hole when she watched the miserable face the boy she most cared about had on.

"I mean...you don't have to say it back straight away if you're not ready to, just...just don't make me feel so bad about having said it."

"Why would you anyway?" Catherine had to keep her ground now that she'd started.

"Because I mean it. I told you that night at your house but you were sleeping."

"I wasn't."

Tadashi went blank at that statement.

"I just didn't want to answer you...and I think this is a pretty good explanation as to why not."

"What?" The boy squeaked in reply.

"You smother me Tadashi and it makes me look like the villain every time." Catherine lied in a way that made her seem like the one who'd been wronged. Her studies had helped her with perfecting that with her boyfriend.

"I didn't mean it like that..." Tadashi started walking up to the girl but she just stepped back and shook her head.

"Never mind, I'm going home." She answered while heading to the door and grabbing her bag and coat from the hanger.

"Catherine, wait." The boy followed after her holding the door as she stepped outside already. She turned at the mention of her name and looked at him seriously.

"We'll talk about this later." She turned to leave but stopped and looked back again.

"Actually, let's not talk about this anymore." Shrugging on her body length grey coat the girl walked out into the chilly street headed to her black BMW. Tadashi stood there in silence as he watched her get in and drive off.

"Tadashi, where'd you go?" Wasabi's voice popped up behind the boy and he turned while closing the door.

"Where's Catherine?"

"She...got a call from the hospital; one of her patients got worse and they needed her there." Tadashi made up a lie for Catherine to avoid a bigger commotion.

"Oh, too bad, well anyway let's get back; Gogo's telling us embarrassing stories from when she and Honey Lemon were in high school."

"Sounds fun." The boy faked a smile and walked back with his friend.

He didn't realize how he was being manipulated by Catherine. He wasn't mad at her at all; if anything he was actually feeling bad for her. Even though all his mind could think of was what she was doing and if she was ok he put on a splendid act for his friends by laughing and listening to their mundane banter till they left. As soon as they did he dismantled on his bed. Clicking the girl's name on the contact list of his phone he scratched his eyebrow and waited. She didn't pick up.

"Damn it." He cursed under his breath and tried again. It didn't matter how many times he called she didn't pick up. He thought about going over to her house and got up just as Hiro walked in to the room.

"Where are you going?" The teenager asked his older brother as he flopped onto his chair.

"I think I'm going to check on Catherine." Tadashi answered worriedly.

"Dude, didn't you just spend the whole evening with her?" Hiro made a point and his brother stopped in his tracks. Looking down to his phone's screen glowing he heaved in a deep breath.

"Do you think I smother people?" The words dragged out of Tadashi's mouth as if he feared the answer.

"People or Catherine?" The younger Hamada was smart enough to understand context but not subtle enough to leave it at that. He took his brother's silence as a confirmation to the question and went on to answer it.

"You do, Tadashi. It's full of good intentions though so maybe she'll see it as 'cute'." The kid oozed the word "cute". It made Tadashi think how most people did that when referring to their relationship: call it cute. Is that what it looked like? Because it wasn't what it felt like. It felt adult, like they were in much too deep. Tadashi gave her too much and Catherine was afraid to overdose too. After thinking it through Tadashi was eased by the fact that she didn't answer him back, that she told him to forget about it. He thought how she was the only reason that their relationship was still balanced and how if she were acting the way he was he wouldn't be strong enough to step back like she'd been doing. Tadashi was giving her all the credit for anything good in the relationship. Eventually he calmed down and went to bed, although he didn't really rest until Catherine called him at three in the morning.

"Hello?" The boy picked up with anxiety clearly riddling his voice.

"How are you?" The girl answered with the same monotone voice she always had when they argued.

"I'm better. Listen, I'm sorry. Really, I overreacted." Tadashi poured out his heart but Catherine only listened. On the other side of the line the girl sat with a shallow cup of wine, sitting outside on her balcony and watching the city move. Her face didn't show much pity or regret but rather an amused and completely sly wide smile. She was beaming. Her notes had served her well, better then well, they'd worked like a charm. Now that she learned that she had the key she was planning on using it as often as she needed to.

"Are you still there?" Tadashi asked the completely flabbergast girl he couldn't see.

"Mmmhmm." She mumbled while taking a sip of her wine barely containing her happiness.

"Okay so I just wanted to let you know that you're really important to me, so I don't want to fight or you know push you into feeling anything. You can take your time and I'll be right by your side." The boy continued to confess to the girl while he curled up in his bed.

"Thank you." The girl said in a tone almost stale enough to be robotic. It was followed by a silence and then a small sigh.

"I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" She finished up the call and Tadashi hummed in confirmation.

"Okay, good night."

"Good night." The boy replied and the phone call ended.

The girl placed her phone on the glass table besides her and sighed. Her smile diminished into a frown and she bit her bottom lip. She didn't know what she was doing. All she wanted was to be with him why had things turned out like that.


	7. More Similar Than Not

CH 6: More Similar Than Not

Hiro watched wide eyed as some guy picked a fight with one of the bot fighters with the worst reputation.

"What'd you say punk?" The tall albino man spat in a Russian accent.

"Exactly what you heard." The younger looking guy answered with a sly grin.

The younger Hamada felt like warning that guy to not mess around with the other dude but the kid looked like he wasn't one to take orders.

"This guy giving you trouble Mo?" another tough looking guy asked his friend as he stepped up and sized the smaller guy.

"What are you here to stand up for your bitch?"

Without as much as a warning the second guy swung at the boy's jaw and hit him dead on. Immediately a circle of interested people gathered around the guy on the floor as they howled and hooted for the spectacle to go on. Hiro joined to watch the match that everyone knew already had a winner. The boy's black hair draped his slick dark eyes as he shook his jaw with his right hand.

"Nice." The boy stood and smiled at the man he'd initially been speaking to.

"You sure are lucky to have him all to yourself."

Hiro's eyebrows rose in shock and instantly the crowd began to roar as they watched Mo beat the weaker kid to the ground. He balled up as the two guys kicked him in the stomach. Suddenly the blond guy lifted the boy and started serving him one blow after the other. The younger Hamada was petrified as he watched and began wondering how the guy was taking so many hits.

"Ah man, he's killing him." Some redhead besides Hiro exclaimed as he shook his hands anxiously. Hiro looked back to the fight; it was true. The guy's left eye was purple and swollen, his mouth was a bloody mess and he could barely stand. From that far away Hiro could notice that he was having trouble breathing and started getting really scared when the thought that the other guys could kill him popped up in his brain.

"Kade!" A voice familiar to Hiro shrilled in the midst of the commotion.

As the owner of the voice ran into the circle and pleaded for the men to stop pounding the boy Hiro reached for his phone and dialed his brother's number.

Over at the silent lab Tadashi sat typing away at his laptop. He looked over to the cell phone set besides his coffee cup and read the caller ID.

"What's up?" The boy answered a bit curious as to why his brother would be calling him.

"Can you come over to that one backstreet over at Greenswards?"

"You mean the one with the bot fights?" Tadashi asked sarcastically as he stood nonetheless and grabbed his jacket.

"Yeah, that one."

"Unbelievable." The guy shook his head as he searched for his keys on his desk.

"You know you got some nerve asking me to pick you up there."

"Trust me, you're gonna want to see what's here." Hiro answered solemnly and Tadashi became more serious as well.

"What's going on Hiro?" The older brother asked fearfully.

"It's better if you see it for yourself." The boy finished and hung up.

"Hiro!" The older Hamada called out in the noisy ally as he frantically searched for his brother.

"Over here." Hiro answered back as he shook his arms in the air and his brother located him quickly.

"Hiro, are you okay? Why'd you call me?" Tadashi asked one thing after the other as he scanned Hiro with his eyes for anything that might answer his questions.

"I'm fine. That guy on the other hand..." Hiro looked to brother then back to the boy who'd been dragged to a corner and was being tended to by Catherine.

"Is that...Catherine?" Tadashi squinted to make sure.

"That's what I was going to ask you." Hiro answered with a meaningful look. Tadashi didn't answer and just headed over to his girlfriend instead.

"Catherine?" The boy called out to her and she turned instantaneously. He eyes were perplexed with fear and apprehension.

"What are you doing here?" She barked at her boyfriend and Tadashi stopped dead in his tracks. He thought about how he could ask her the same but noticed that she was too rattled to be confronted.

"Is he alright?" Tadashi continued over to his girlfriend's brother whose face had been wiped on Catherine's shirt causing the white material to be completely stained by the vivid crimson liquid.

"He's having trouble breathing." The girl answers with a crackle in her voice and Tadashi nods.

"Let's take him to the university's hospital." The boy says and Catherine's eyes grow wide.

"No! We can't take him there." She shakes her head violently.

"Why not?"

"We just can't!" The girl states with a dark tone.

"Fine. Then how about we let Baymax take care of him?" Tadashi looked into the girl's eyes as they eased their expression and she just barely nodded. The two of them lugged Kade into Catherine's car and Tadashi and Hiro climbed up on the bike.

"You should have seen her running in there; she literally begged for those guys to let him go." Hiro commented as they whizzed through the nighttime streets. Tadashi remained listening as he was a bit embarrassed by the whole situation.

"She was cleaning his bloody face with her shirt and kept holding onto him like he was actually dying. She must really love her brother." Hiro stated what he'd seen.

"She says she hates him." Tadashi said with a questioning voice.

"Maybe she was just kidding when she said it because she looked like she was about to faint when she saw him that way." Hiro tried to answer his brother but only confused him further. Hiro chuckled as they reached their destination.

"What is it?" The older brother asked as he stopped in front of the Lucky Cat café and Hiro got off the bike.

"You know at first I didn't really get why you two were dating; I never saw anything in common though you two are cute together I guess. But tonight when I saw the way she acted with her brother...it was like I was seeing you. Maybe you two are pretty similar after all." Hiro smiled as his brother listened dumbfounded by his kid brother's unexpected depth.

"Good luck with the dude." The younger Hamada waved to Tadashi as he entered their home.

"Thanks." Tadashi answered in a low voice and sped off to his lab.

Back in the lab Catherine was fidgeting while waiting for Tadashi. She'd set a makeshift bed for her brother in a secluded space away from her boyfriend's more used area and finished cleaning Kade's face. The boy was still conscious but could barely muster up the strength to say a word. His open wounds and busted lip stung as the cold air touched them. His vision was blurry because of his swollen eye but he could make out his sister sitting on the floor besides him. The smell of alcohol invaded his memory and the girl's younger face with that same worried expression as she stared at him lying on the floor of his room. This scenery wasn't too different from the first time it happened.

"Please don't kill him!" The boy heard the words resound in the confusion of the crowded setting they were in. His little sister's figure was standing in front of a group of five or so teenage boys holding sticks that they'd used on him.

"You know this asshole?" One of the boys asked Catherine and she lowered the hands she hand stretched out in a sign of peace.

"He's my brother." The girl answered and a roar of laughter broke out.

"Saved by your little sister, huh, loser? We'll let you go this time but if you diss our bots again we won't stop until you're a bloody pulp, no matter how much she pleads" The teenager warned as he pointed to Catherine then walked away followed by his gang.

"Cathy?" Kade cringed as he asked for his sister. He'd never seen her so scared before. It made him feel guilty to be the reason why she had that sad expression on but at the same time it was the first time he'd truly felt loved; like her most honest feelings came out when she was put in a situation where she didn't have any control over.

"Kade! Are you okay?" The small girl's heartbeat raced as she kneeled next to her brother on the dirt floor.

"Why'd you follow me, Catherine?" The boy sat up and faced his sister.

"I was..." Before she could complete her sentence a tiny gasp was heard as Catherine took in her brothers beaten up face for the first time.

"Kade, we have to get you to the hospital." The girl started to lift her brother by the shoulder and he got up but disagreed.

"No, if we go to the hospital they'll call mom and dad."

"But...Kade you're really beat up." Catherine tittered as she tried to look back to her brother's bloody face.

"Can't you just help me out at home?" The boy questioned and his sister nodded reluctantly.

In the end she tended to all his wounds even though she could barely see through her tear-flooded eyes. Her small hands grasped onto Kade's shirt as she lay in his bed with him and hiccupped to sleep. It made the boy think about how sensitive his little sister was to cry over him doing something as stupid as picking a fight. That was the last time Catherine would cry for him though, so as trivial as it seemed Kade still treasured the memory.

The door of lab opens and Tadashi walks in with an expression which was a mix of worry and awkwardness.

"Is-Is he doing okay?" The boy said while walking in but keeping his distance.

"Yeah, Baymax helping him out and I was just finishing up."

"Oh, okay."

"Tadashi, take me somewhere." Catherine said with pleading eyes and though Tadashi had no idea where to take her he agreed.

Taking her hand he led her out of the lab he'd just entered and walked out of the building. Somehow Catherine's silence always seemed to speak the loudest to Tadashi. He walked with her farther and farther until they were merely wondering around the university they spent their days in. The two found themselves walking into the observatory they'd never really took time to go to. Catherine looked into the telescope and Tadashi stood quietly besides her. The girl was always that way; tightlipped. Catherine wasn't one to tell you about her day much less about her feelings; whatever she did had previously and solitarily been decided by her. No one had ever interfered with that mindset. Tadashi understood it. He even shared it sometimes though he was significantly less selfish than his pair.

"You can really see a lot with this." Catherine commented emptily as she moved away from the telescope and looked to her boyfriend who had a pretty solemn expression on.

"What's up?" The girl smiled lightly to Tadashi.

"I just wish that for once you would open up." As Tadashi said this Catherine's fake smile trickled down to a scowl.

"Fine, Tadashi, I get it." She cut him off from rambling and sighed.

"You clearly don't hate your brother that much."

"Yeah...and maybe I even love him, but..." She stuttered and ultimately stopped talking.

"You can tell me." The boy assured his girlfriend and took her into a hug.

"You know how sometimes there's a big pile...and people keep adding more and more to that pile and it actually holds up but if you pull one small thing out of that pile it comes crumbling down?" Catherine's eyes shined and her voice trembled ever so slightly.

"Well, Tadashi, I'm that pile okay so please don't try to get anything out of me."

Tadashi was silent all together and his hold on the girl eased up.

"Sorry Catherine but I'm not going to let you be that. Because you know that the pile can't keep itself up forever...but don't worry because I'm patient." The boy gently kissed her lips as she was still taken aback by his words. The waiting game the two were playing at had just been taken up a notch and neither of them was about to give in. She kissed him back passionately. Internally she was overwhelmed by happiness but her expression was as staid as always.

"It's not just about patience, Tadashi."

The boy gave a yellow smile; he didn't know what she meant at all. But he soon would.

When the couple had returned to the room Kade was no longer there and all that they found was a piece of paper over the blanket he'd folded.

"Thanks Cathy." Tadashi read out loud as Catherine held the paper.


	8. Body Aches

CH 7: Body Aches

A sharp sound of shattering glass ringed through the quiet hospital room. Catherine looked down and embarrassedly scurried to pick up the irregular pieces of the cup she'd dropped. The invitation still echoed in her head and it was throwing her off completely.

Catherine had worked extremely hard that week; her exams had just finished and she was anxious for the results even though she had been assured by all of her colleagues that there was no way she'd fail. Luckily for her, Kade had disappeared after his last incident and Tadashi understood how keen she was on getting an excellent review from her resident doctor and gave her space. It was under these conditions that Catherine found herself in the most unpleasant situation.

The streets of San Fransokyo were beautifully littered with orange leaves on the ground and the pleasurable scent of pumpkin pies and other homey delights. As Catherine walked to her university she finally realized what season she was in. The work she let flood her every second had kept her from noticing the winds growing chillier and the trees becoming more barren. If she'd picked up on theses sooner perhaps she wouldn't have been so surprised when the call came.

The girl's phone lowly played her sweet ringtone and as she read the screen her easy expression warped into an affronted one. There was no caller ID but that was on purpose; the person on the other side of the line was someone Catherine thought she wouldn't hear from for a considerable amount of time. Nonetheless there it was.

Hesitantly, Catherine hovered her thumb over the red circle on the display but eventually gave into a humanly impulse and answered it. Lifting the phone to her ear the girl didn't make a sound so the other person did.

"Hello? Catherine? Can you hear me?" A smooth female voice flowed into her ears.

"Yeah." The answer came out almost like a tiny wine or grunt.

"Dear, it's your mother." The voice said and only then did Catherine notice that she had come to a strange halt in the middle of the sidewalk.

"I know." Catherine looked to the side and took in her reflection from a store window. She was dreadfully pale and her eyes were dead as she spoke.

"Good. Anyway, I've already spoken to your brother so I guess now it's your turn." As Mrs. Anders said this Catherine caught her breath and waited for her to continue.

"Would you please join us for Thanksgiving dinner?"

When the question was made the girl on the other side of the line nearly chuckled. Her mother was as audacious as ever. To be inviting her over to Thanksgiving dinner so naturally almost as if they were on the best of terms and she could simply phone her daughter and she would gratefully accept and giddily rush to her home only proved how indelicate the woman truly was although her etiquette would've easily fooled anyone. But Catherine knew her mother all too well.

Responding with silence didn't throw her mom's acting off one bit and she trailed off to finish her monologue.

"You think about it. See if you can sort out everything there and call me when you decide, alright dear? Now, I really must go; your father and I are going to buy some ingredients before the stores all run out." She gave a lighthearted chuckle and waited for a reply.

"Alright." Catherine answered only to meet the required 'final word' before her mother hung up.

Catherine shuffled the whole day worried about the repercussions her mom's surprise call would have on her performance at the hospital. This was Catherine's last year. The year she would graduate and later become a real intern at a hospital that didn't belong to the college, so to the girl every detail counted. By the end of her shifts the girl was physically exhausted and mentally drained.

"Hey, you doing okay?" Tadashi's soothing voice asked through the phone and Catherine almost regretted her choices regarding the boy.

"I don't even know how I held up the whole day." Catherine answered as she soaked in the scorching water ornamented with the bath bomb she had in her tub.

"Don't worry too much about it. A day at a time will do." Tadashi was at home too. He'd just had the soup aunt Cass had made and was hanging around in his room while Hiro was tinkering away in the garage.

"Let's hope." The girl pessimistically joked and soon changed subjects. "Anyway, how're you?"

"Starved; aunt Cass is on this new diet and all she made tonight was miso soup. Hiro didn't even eat it he just made a hot pocket. I didn't want to be rude so I ate with her."

"Of course you did." Catherine was reminded of how polite her boyfriend actually was and grinned.

"I had like 3 bowls but I feel like I'm gonna faint any moment now." The boy joked on as he skimmed over some designs that Gogo asked him to review.

"You and me both, kid. Why don't you grab us some Chinese and come over to my place, unless you're doing something, obviously." Catherine asked already smelling the dreamy fried rice.

"No, I was just going over some new designs that Gogo made but I'm pretty much done. I'll be over soon."

"I'm still in the bath so take your time."

"In that case I'll be as quick as I can." Tadashi giggled as he kidded.

"Not as funny as you'd hoped, Hamada." Catherine said feigning tediousness although she had found it mildly amusing.

"I expected as much. See you soon."

"Okay, bye."

Catherine had taken her time in the bath, gotten dressed and checked some of her social media when finally Tadashi arrived with 4 takeout orders.

"Baby!" Catherine opened her arms and Tadashi smiled awaiting a hug but instead the girl took the food and walked back to the living room.

"Well, I missed you too." The boy said sarcastically with a chuckle and took a seat on the girl's white faux leather sofa.

Tadashi watched as she moved her coffee table's décor all to one side and placed the small boxes on the other.

"Fried rice & chicken lo mein." The boy pointed to the boxes that had each one of the foods.

"Does the..." Catherine began to formulate a question but Tadashi answered her before she could.

"Yes, the fried rice has shrimp in it."

"Yes!" The girl commemorated and pulled her chopsticks apart.

The two started to munch on the delicious food and make small talk. Suddenly Catherine's phone beeps noticing her that she had a message. The girl reached for the phone and saw a message from her mother. She quickly put her phone to the side and ignored it completely. Tadashi's expression changed instantly as he wondered why the girl acted that way after seeing the message.

"Let's watch something." Catherine said as she browsed through Netflix.

"Sure." The boy pretended to not notice anything and went along with her.

The atmosphere grew silent half because of the movie that buzzed on the TV half because of how both Catherine and Tadashi were covering things up and acting unnaturally. The boy pressed his lips together trying with all his being to keep in the things that would surely start a riot between them. After a certain point Catherine decided to let her bad blood get the best of her, shifting on the sofa and looking Tadashi straight in the face.

"What is it?" She asked with no roundabouts.

"Why didn't you pick up your phone just now?" Tadashi decides to answer with equal directness.

"You don't need to know that." She shook her head almost as if denying he even asked. She was always willing to say the most shocking, hurtful, cold things to her boyfriend straight up and honestly she didn't have to give it a second thought but this was different. Mrs. Anders was the solitary most cunning being Catherine knew; the mere mention of her name would throw the girl off completely, let alone try to explain her complex relationship with her.

"Of course I don't. I only know what you want me to know, only see what you want me to see, only say what you want me to say, right?" The boy seethes at his girlfriend whose eyes grow wide.

"Do you think I'm stupid, Catherine? I may not know anything about your past but I know you." He was glaring into her shocked eyes as she tried her best to not run out the door.

"You don't understand." The girl shook her head harder this time and shut her eyes trying to run away from Tadashi's confrontation.

"What do I need to do for you to trust me?" His voice grew and Catherine simply stood and opened the door.

"Go."

Tadashi couldn't even believe she could so easily just end the conversation but another part of him agreed to leave seeing that he would surely start a fiery argument if he didn't. He nodded and grabbed his keys as he stomped towards the door.

"I think we should give this some time."

"Fine." She responded calmly. The precision in the girl's voice was so sharp and crisp it sliced through Tadashi's already trembling heart.

"You're not even going to fight a little?" His lips quivered as his words shook with the way he was trying to hold back his tears.

"I think you're right; we should take some time for ourselves."

"Do you even love me at all?"

"Tadashi, you're so smart; do you really think now is a good time to ask that?"

He sighed and tried his best to not just apologize and fall into the girl's arms.

"Good night, Tadashi." She nodded and he took a deep breath as he stared into her eyes.

As the door closed and Catherine was once again alone in her apartment she pressed into her eyes with her fingers and took a slow breath in as she tried to figure out what she had gotten herself into. She removed her hand and the sight of the disorganized living room propelled her to destructive actions. She went into her room and flipped through her calendar, read the words that were scribbled in one of the boxes, went back into the living room, grabbed her cell phone and dialed the number.

"Hello?" The voice on the other end picked up.

"I'm coming home for Thanksgiving."


	9. Home

CH 8: Home

The house was just as it had been the last time Catherine had been there but there was a distinct difference about it. Not visibly but most definitely she could feel it. Maybe it was the fact that now that she understood the things that had happened there she could truly regret them to the extent they deserved to be regretted.

"Catherine, go help your father get the things from the car, would you dear?" A twinkling tone bounced from each corner of the room and crawled its way into the young girl's ears. She obeyed and headed out to the driveway where Kade and Mr. Anders were hauling in bags of groceries. She cringed and glided her following movements to make it seem as if she was shaking from the cold wind swirling around her beige coat.

"There's just a few more things, Cathy." The older male smiled genuinely and the girl couldn't help but return the favor. Kade followed right behind their father and Catherine refused to make eye contact with the boy.

"This ought to be interesting, huh sis?" He whispered as they crossed and that was it.

After all the ingredients were in the home Mrs. Anders shooed everyone from the kitchen on the pretext that she rather see everyone relaxing as they waited for the food though everyone knew quite well that it was because she couldn't stand a crowded kitchen. Mr. Anders didn't even insist and headed directly to the TV he was longing for. He didn't bother calling Kade; since he knew the boy never had a single bit of interest for sports. Catherine used the dispersion of the family to go out for a walk despite how chilly it was.

Step by step Catherine strolled down the streets of her old neighborhood; it was hazy but she could still make out memories of her younger self. She seemed much more distraught compared to those visions. A cold breeze swept in from behind her and she stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jacket, she wished she'd brought a thicker one at that moment. Feeling her phone she suddenly became a few degrees colder than she already was. Ever since arriving she'd noticed how much she had actually grown attached to Tadashi. She could feel somehow that he was hovering over the phone, thinking about how much it would cost him morally to give in and call her. She hoped he didn't. She was already regretting having gone and a call in from her boyfriend (or at least she hoped he still could be considered that) would be just the excuse she needed to run away from the confrontation just on the horizon. Catherine could feel the tension welling up in the house. All four of them were awkward strangers who knew everything about one another. Kade was the only person Catherine could still risk calling family. No matter how much he interrupted her drawn-out path in life she could at least always feel he was there to remind her that he was there because he kept in touch with her reality. The girl shook the device out of her fingers and pulled her hands out of her pockets again, deciding to head back to the house for warmth.

As she reached the front of the house she suddenly lost all interest in going in to see her parents only to be ignored by them ergo being forced to ignore them as well to not be irritating. A burst of irresponsibility most present in teenagers took over her all at once and she rounded to the side of the house where the window to Kade's room was. It wasn't the first time she'd do that and in that very moment if felt like the most correct form to enter that house. As she stumbled into the room her eyes rose to find Kade standing over his perfectly made bed. He looked over to his sister from the corner of his eyes and smirked. She stood still and speechless.

"I knew you wouldn't resist doing that whenever you came back." He giggled as he looked at her emotionless face.

"This room is the heart of the house after all." She finally responded.

"Why do you say that?" He questioned her casually sitting on the dark blue sheets.

"It's the only room that I ever saw any true emotion in." She switched her gaze from the floor to her brother's dark pupils a soft spark of light shining in their center.

"So you chose not to forget those things." His usual sarcastic tone was turned into a weak whisper now.

"It's complicated ...I find it more comprehensible now. I owed it a level of emotion I couldn't give it at the time. I guess...I'm still in mourning."

"I fucked you up, didn't I?" Kade's lips shook and Catherine sat beside him on the bed.

"Does it even matter? This family's all wrong anyway." She took his hand as they recalled the scene as it was 7 years ago.

Sniffling could be heard inside the dark room. The boy bit his plump lips so hard he could barely feel any blood pumping through them at all. His skin felt translucent and disgraceful like he was made of plastic. If he could he would become invisible.

"Kade?" A small voice was breathed from the door and equally small hands opened the door and walked in.

"What the hell are you doing here, Catherine?" The teenager barked at his sister who didn't care much about his cursing.

"Did you get beat up again?" The girl asked tucking a lock of long hair behind her ear and locking the door.

"No. Just get the fuck out."

"Shut up. What's wrong with you?" The girl walked closer to her sibling and shifted her head to see his face. Abruptly he stood from the bed and grabbed at the young adolescent's shoulders.

"I SAID GET OUT!" He hissed and the girl's eyes grew wide.

"Kade, your lips are blue. What are you feeling?" She ignored his aggressive manner and placed her hands over the boy's forehead. At those actions he broke down and a stream of tears started pouring down his cheeks.

"I don't feel anything anymore." He mumbled through his sobbing and faltered back until he fell onto his bed.

"Kade?" The anxiety in the girl's voice was obvious but after many years seeing her brother battered and broken she'd grown accustomed to keeping her reactions to a minimum.

"I'm...I...let her do it." The boy sputtered things that Catherine didn't understand but she had a feeling it wasn't good.

"Kade, just tell me what happened."

"It's too late, Cathy. It's done." Kade was hiccupping at this point which only made Catherine even more worried about what it was.

"Mrs. Harold." At the sound of the familiar name Catherine felt a deathly shiver roll down her spine. What could the chemistry teach possibly have done to Kade?

"What happened, Kade?" The girl said firmly and Kade stopped weeping only long enough to confess the twisted deeds of the teacher. Catherine's young mind stopped processing for a few minutes after the newfound information. Was it possible for Kade to be speaking of the same woman she knew? Women...they don't do things like that...right? To...to abuse people...why didn't...

"...you say anything?" Catherine asked undignified.

"She blackmailed me. She said she'd tell mom and dad all about my bot fighting."

"No...this is all wrong." Catherine held onto her brother tighter than ever trying to make that memory fade out of him.

"I'm really useless. I...I can't believe that I let this happen." He squeezed his sister's hand and she felt like justifying him.

"It's not your fault. Sometimes...bad things happen...but we can get through them." The girl barely could find the right words.

Kade scoffed and pushed the girl off his bed.

"How would you know? Everything works out perfect for you, don't they, Cathy?"

"Kade." The girl looked up to her brother from the floor and felt a stinging in her eyes.

"Get out of here. Tell mom and dad if you want. Tell the whole world how much of a mess your demon brother is! Just get the fuck out of my room!"

Catherine stood and unlocked the door before turning and giving her brother a shocked look.

"Leave!" He commanded through tears and she obeyed.

"There's a storm coming you know?" Kade was referring to their mother undeniably shocking against the girl.

"I know. I came after it."

"Dinner's ready!" The siblings heard their mother's voice coming from downstairs and looked at each other as if preparing.

"Then get ready to go into the eye of it." Kade stood and Catherine made her way out the window to reenter through the door.

After a few words from Mr. Anders the family took their seats and commenced eating. The table was a sure banquet and everything looked splendid.

"So, Cathy, this is your last year, tell us how it's been." The father said with a small smile.

"Good...actually great. I kind of stumbled a little during the first half but everything's back on track..." Catherine's words trickled into more of a whisper towards the end of her phrase. Were they really back on track? She never questioned her capability to pass in any of the classes or even hesitated on whether she would be able to turn in a paper on time but now that Tadashi was in her life she constantly found herself wondering if she really was on track...with her life.

The girl looked up from her plate to the people surrounding her and swallowed hard. She didn't know her father, she hated her mother and Kade was just as broken as she was; in the end she wasn't so on track. She forced herself to make out one name that she could consider an actual friend but nothing came to her.

"That's good." The woman sitting beside Mr. Anders smiled while bringing a fork up to her mouth.

"Mom." Catherine directed a word to her mother for the first time since she got there.

"What is it dear?"

The other two looked up. Catherine never started a conversation with Mrs. Anders, if anything she avoided her mother. But there she was looking straight into the woman's eyes and calling her "mom".

"Are you even capable of saying something truthfully?"

Mrs. Anders swallowed the food she had in her mouth calmly and stared back at her daughter.

"What are talking about, honey?"

"See, there, you're doing it again. You're always like that; fake."

"Catherine." The woman warns in a low but peaceful tone.

"Just stop it! We all know you're not really like that. We've seen your fights with uncle David and we know where you come from, mom, stop trying to act like you're someone perfect."

"Catherine, I think you should..." The father tries to intervene but is cut off.

"You too, dad. All you ever did was sit besides her nodding to all her false motherly love." Catherine's eyes were glistening with undignified bravery.

"I don't care if we're all screwed up but at least let's be honest about it! Can any of you even actually say one thing you're honestly thankful for or is this dinner just part of the show too?" At this point Catherine was standing and ready to leave the table when a low sniffle broke the deafening silence. All eyes were on the woman sitting with her head hanging.

"You're right." Her voice trembled and suddenly Catherine's rage all seeped through her body and she was left as flabbergast as the other two.

"You're right. We're all fake; I'm a fake person with a fake life but you know what Catherine? So are you!" The woman rose from her seat and finally unleashed the distilled form of all her thorny comments and looks.

"You think we don't know how you prance about in that college like you've got everything under control? You don't answer our calls and you pretend that your family doesn't exist because you don't want anyone to know how "screwed up" we are but you're the one running from everything."

"I'm not running from everything! I'm running from you! Kade may be nuisances to me but at least I know that the things he says to me, no matter how irritable they are, he says them because they were on his mind. I can't see that with you guys." She whispered the last part while switching her view to her father.

"You treat me like the family prodigy but you make me feel like the rebel."

"Have you ever thought, Catherine, that maybe we're inconstant with you because you're always keeping us on our toes?" That was the first confrontational thing her father had said since she'd arrived and it hit her harder that anything.

"It's the agony of having you act like we're either enemies or judges that makes us unstable about what you really are." His dark blue eyes stared straight through the girl ahead of him and without noticing the girl felt something on her face. It was something wet and warm and only when Kade took her hand did she realize she'd been sobbing.

"I don't want to be anything but your daughter." She whimpered as she looked to the couple on the other side of the table.

"We've all been pretending for too long." Kade said finally looking up from Catherine's face to his parents.

The food sat on the table untouched and at the whole vibration of the room was far from a holiday gathering but at least one thing was sure; they had finally something to be grateful for.


	10. Beginning of the End

CH 9: Beginning of the End

The lively ring of the bell hanging just above the Lucky Cat's entrance was a sound that always made Catherine feel like she'd been transported into a different realm; one where there were people who were actually good and where caffeinated drinks were equally as delightful to drink as they were to pronounce. The girl looked around and noticed things that were there before yet that she'd not noticed before. Simple apparently meaningless things like the random calendars on the wall or the little strips of colored paper that swayed under the A.C. She stepped in and walked straight to the left where the counter displayed a variety of pastries. Tadashi was nowhere in sight but she figured it was best if she let her presence slowly mix into the ambient rather than do as she'd been doing for the last couple months. It's amazing what a good family argument can make you realize, other than that she'd cried more that evening than she had for the last 2 years however to be fair she wasn't the only one. One of her epiphanies though was something obvious: Tadashi was not getting the love he deserved.

The sun that spilled into the lively café was nothing too overbearing but still had a tone that set everyone at ease. Catherine had been thinking how the place had an aura of love that drifted around it like the awakening and comforting scents of sweet batter and coffee when a familiar voice brought her back.

"Tadashi's girlfriend?" A boy almost Catherine's height said from behind her and caused her to open up a smile that had been withheld for much too long.

"Hiro." She said a bit awkward but glad to see him nonetheless.

"Um, Tadashi's not here yet." He said guessing the reason for the girl's visit.

"Oh, alright...but, um actually...I just wanted a coffee."

"Oh, well, okay then, let me get you it. Which one?" The younger boy said walking behind the counter.

"Macchiato." She answers and Hiro grins a little. Catherine notices but doesn't say anything as she waits for the drink which the boy quickly prepares. He steps back from behind the counter and as she takes the drink Hiro presses his lips together.

"Could you come back here for a few minutes?" He points to a familiar door that led to the garage and Catherine nods.

The state of the place was as it always was; filled with everything you could possibly think could fit in a garage except for a car. Hiro had taken a seat on the single chair that was part of the desk and Catherine took her own seat on the lumpy sofa. Although the young boy was the one who invited her he was awfully quiet and between sips Catherine noticed how he regretted his choice.

"Listen." The pre-teen's voice finally came. Catherine did.

"I know this is none of my business but when has that stopped me before."

"Yes?" Catherine nodded and took a big sip of her drink accustomed to the temperature of the liquid.

"Well, um, you see, Tadashi tells me a lot of things." Hiro swirls a bit in his chair as he initiates something that Catherine already noticed would end up in a personal question.

"Like that for example." He points loosely to the foam cup in the girl's hand and she looks down to it.

"When you two first went out he came home a few days later with a bunch of ingredients, when I asked him what it was for he said he wanted to learn how to make a Macchiato so we could add it to the menu but after a few weeks he was going on and on about you and then he says how you love Macchiato and I just connected the dots."

Catherine blushed upon hearing the story and took another sip to keep from having to comment at all.

"So...I hope that you don't find this weird but...why are you with him?"

Suddenly she stopped everything she was thinking of and stared at Hiro's face. He looked like he was both anxious and repelled by the thought of hearing someone romantically describe his big brother.

"Hiro." A voice that wasn't Catherine's called to the boy and instantly both of them looked to the figure at the door. Tadashi stood tall and unnaturally serious. Catherine kept staring at him; his face had a little bit of stubble which made him look much older than he was and he wasn't wearing his cap. Hiro jumped from the chair and looked from Catherine to his brother before making his scattered exit to leave the two to themselves.

Everything was intensely silent after the younger Hamada left. Catherine felt like smiling and telling him everything that she'd been through but knew better and just sustained their silence as she watched him flick his signature cap on the desk and, after a few seconds internally debating if he should or not, decide to pull up the chair Hiro had just left and take a seat. The chair seemed to have a certain hex on that made the one who sat upon it seem like they did and didn't want to start a conversation. She stayed still only slowly rotating her cup in her two hands. A few more seconds of infinite silence, another sip and she had finished her drink. All the while Tadashi stared at her, slightly menacingly actually.

"Hi." She said finally. He didn't answer and she bit the inside of her lip. She knew there was going to be a serious conversation and only wished it would begin sooner; she couldn't stand the weight of the boys stare.

"Why are you here?" He suddenly questioned looking directly into her eyes. She felt her heart melt upon hearing his voice and suddenly she realized that she hadn't thought about what she was going to say when she actually saw him.

"I...I want to tell you everything." She decided to answer in short. His response was a simple change of expression. She had studied him well enough to understand that he wanted to hear it. And so she told him. She told him about really liking him in the beginning and told him about Kade and about her childhood and about her parents and about the game she invented and was playing with him and how terrible she felt after the first "I love you" and about the part where she wanted him to hate her but he didn't and about the Thanksgiving and about the argument and about thinking about him while she was there and about the gallons of tears she cried and how he was the reason for half of them and then she started crying again. And she sniffled and apologized and told him about not believing in love and about being fake and absolutely sobbed as she mentioned the Macchiato story and it was right about then that he could hold it in anymore and stood. He simply stood there. She didn't hear him say anything so she cried more quietly just in case he whispered something. But he didn't. And so she looked up and saw him crying too. His large hands brushing away the thin streams of tears that went down his cheek. She stood in front of him and he placed one of his big hands behind her head and pulled her into his chest and she suddenly stopped crying. But he didn't and with each breath he heaved her head followed his lungs movements until it became slower and slower. Then she listened to his words reverberate inside his thorax and she pulled back to look to his face to make sure she heard correctly. He stared back at her and she could feel her knees get a little weaker as each letter sunk into her.

"It's too late."

"Ready?"

"Not really." Catherine giggled excitedly as she looked to the redhead besides her.

"Sure you are. We all are." He nodded assuring and patted her back. She smiled and nodded back to him as they stepped into the room of the surgery together and joined the 5 other doctors surrounding the patient who'd just given into the anesthesia.

After a few hours the girl came out of the OR taking deep breathes and feeling the greatest satisfaction in being the one to tell the patients family that the woman was free of the tumor and already being taken to ICU. She watched with gleaming eyes as they hugged each other some letting relieved snivels escape in the moment of joy. Dismissing herself from the crowd she slowly walked down the hall. While rubbing her lids with both hands she came out of operating mode, finally observing the exhaustion she'd been neglecting throughout the entirety of the process. After lowering her hands she saw a face she knew well and greeted him a slightly apprehensive smile.

"Hey."

"Hey." She answered while looking straight into his eyes, wondering why he'd show up so unexpectedly.

"I have news." The boy's dark eyes swayed from side to side before landing on Catherine once again.

She nodded encouragingly.

"I'm moving...to another country."

"What?" She said and felt her fingers twitch from the impulse of the announcement as she thought how this truly was "news".

"Let me explain; it's nothing crazy." He raised his hands in a soothing manner and she drew a long deep breath before allowing him to continue.

"I signed up for college in London."

"Kade, that's great. What for?"

"Chemical Technology." He answered and smiled sadly.

"You never asked me how I ended up getting involved with the Chemistry teacher, did you? Turns out I have a real knack for crazy people careers."

Catherine felt a knot in her throat and bit her tongue in order to not let the tears start pouring down her cheeks.

"Kade, I..."

"No need baby sister, I found my way again." He stretched out his arm and pulled the girl into a loose but meaningful embrace.

"Thanks for always being there."

Catherine was really biting down on her tongue at this point. She looked up at her big brother and for the first time she felt that he was just that.

"No problem...big brother."


	11. Epilogue

Ch 10: Epilogue

Tadashi huffed as he looked down to the half-written paper on his computer. He couldn't concentrate. After finding out everything that had happened between him and Catherine he felt an incredible peace; the minutes following his last words to her had him on cloud nine. However as soon as she turned her back and walked out of the café he found himself in a bigger blur than when he was arguing with her.

"Just look at it from a different angle." Hiro's words slurred with a tinge of a tease from his side of the room though he didn't even know what had brought his brother to his frustrated state.

"It has nothing to do with homework." Tadashi responded raising from his bed and forgetting his computer all together.

"Just look at it from a different angle though...whatever it is." His face still buried in a nothing educational magazine about robotic cheat-codes.

The older boy sighed and scooched his brother's feet aside as he sat on his bed.

"I miss her." He said out of the blue.

"Catherine?" Hiro peeked from behind the pages and saw his brother nod with a frown.

"Then why did you break up with her in the first place?"

"Because..." Tadashi dragged out the word. "I had to. She was tricking me the whole time."

"Was she? Or were you just trying to look over it?" Hiro was usually on his brother's side but he had noticed how strange Tadashi was being, letting Catherine step all over him that way.

"I had hoped she was just a bit uncertain but...she had some actual problems. And I didn't even know." He sounded guiltier of not being able to help her rather than of the fact that he wasn't being completely honest about what he was feeling as well.

"Tadashi." Hiro set the magazine aside and sat up, looking his brother straight in the face.

"Do you like her?"

He took in a deep breath and his eyebrows fringed.

"I do."

"Then go talk to her. You're not like this; you're not someone who sulks over things. You're brave. Maybe when you actually start acting like yourself...things will work out."

Tadashi was taking aback by the harsh words. They lingered in the air until he finally stood and lightly nodded.

"Alright. I'm going to see her." He started out the door until hearing his brothers voice.

"Better hurry, I saw her when I went to buy the magazine and she had a bunch of luggage. I think she was headed to the airport."

Tadashi's eyes grew wide as he snapped back at the boy.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?!"

"You two were broken up!" Hiro tried to defend himself.

"Dammit, Hiro!" Tadashi rushed down the stairs and out onto the streets towards the airport as fast as he could.

When he finally reached the bustling location he searched for the girl with a sharp eye, zooming from each person's face until he saw Catherine's familiar long locks.

"Catherine!" He yelled out, dashing in her general direction.

"Catherine!" Tadashi called out again, closer this time and she actually heard him.

"Tadashi?" The girl said as she spun her head, a suitcase in her left hand.

"Catherine. I'm ..."He heaved trying to catch his breath.

"Catherine, please don't leave. I...We need to talk." He managed to wheeze as he stands up straight.

"I'm not leaving." She says simply and Kade walks up from behind her taking the suitcase she held and giving Tadashi a snickering grin.

"Bye, sis." He hugged Catherine and then looked back to Tadashi.

"You really do need to talk." He joked and headed off into the plane.

"It's, uh...He's the one leaving?" Tadashi asked with red cheeks. The girl nodded with a mocking smile on her lips.

"I...didn't know that." He said embarrassedly taking a step closer to the girl who still smiled but took a step back.

"No way. Nope. We are not getting back together in an airport; too cheesy." She shook her head and walked forward leaving Tadashi with a wider grin than hers.

He jogged up after her, although he was just about done with any more running, and tried to take her hand. She pulled it away and looked up at him. They smiled at each other and he nodded. As soon as they stepped through the doors of the airport though Tadashi pulled the girls wrist and she stumbled backwards till he sat her on his motorcycle. His lips crashed onto hers and this time she didn't fight his touches.

"There, we didn't get back together in an airport." He panted over her lips which had curled up into the biggest smile.

"No...we didn't. Thanks." She said and he giggled.

"No problem, really."

She pushed him back and he stared at her thoroughly.

"What?" The girl finally said.

"You seem different." He answered.

"Things happened." She said a bit more seriously now. He nodded serious as well and she took his hand.

"Let me pay you back... for my last psychiatric appointment." She said looking down to their hands then up to his eyes which greeted her warmly.

"I'll make you a Macchiato." Tadashi smiled and wrapped her in his arms. She breathed out relieved by the boy's good nature and felt completely comforted.

"I love you, Tadashi." She finally confirmed though in a whisper. He didn't pull back to look at her face but instead hugged her tighter and sighed the happiest, most fulfilled words he could:

"I love you too, Catherine."


End file.
